Mount Eccles National Park, VKFF-345

After my activation of Mount Napier summit, I headed off to the Mount Eccles National Park (NP), which is located in western Victoria, about 270 km west of Melbourne, and about 15 km south west of the little town of MacArthur.

Map courtesy of mapcarta.com

Mount Eccles NP is about 5,470 hectares in size, and was established in June, 1960. Not surprising, located within the park is Mount Eccles, also named Budj Bim by the Gunditjmara aboriginal people. It is the site of the most recent active volcano in Australia. The most recent eruption of Mount Eccles was about 8,000 years ago. I am very pleased to report that it remained quite during my activation of the park. Mount Eccles is a relatively small hill surrounded by lush vegetation with a small hidden deep volcanic crater lake which is named Lake Surprise.

There is a good article and a short audio item with photographs on the ABC South West Victoria website at…..

I entered the park via Mount Eccles Road. There were quite a few people in the main campground, so I continued up to Lake Surprise lookout area, and set up in a cleared area near the carpark. This was certainly not as green and shady as the campground, but it was a lot quieter.

Image courtesy of parksweb.vic.gov.au

My first contact was with Col VK5HCF who was portable in the Canunda National Park in the South East of South Australia. Col was out and about with Tom VK5EE, and was activating the park as part of the VK5 National & Conservation Parks Award and the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program. They had a good strong 5/8 signal to Mount Eccles.

I then found a clear frequency on 7.110 and put out a few CQ calls and it wasn’t long before I was called by John VK5BJE, followed by Terry VK3UP, Frank VK2HFS, and then Nigel VK5NIG. After working a further 3 stations, I went hunting around the band again, and found Peter VK3PF operating portable from the Lind National Park, VKFF-287. More information on Peter’s activation can be found on his WordPress site at…..

After working Peter I called CQ on 7.095 and again it wasn’t long before I had a steady flow of callers calling in again, from VK3, VK5, & VK7. They included Joe VK3YSP and his wife Julie VK3YSP, operating portable from the Wilsons Promontory National Park. Nick VK3ANL also called in, whilst portable on SOTA peak, Mount Dandenong, VK3/ VC-025 which is located in the Dandenong Ranges National Park VKFF-132. And a few contacts later, I was called by Peter VK3ZPF who was portable in the Churchill National Park, VKFF-621. Peter had a good 5/7 signal.

After working Peter I had a further 12 contacts, before lowering the squid pole and trying my luck on 20m. I called CQ on a number of occasions on 14.310 but had absolutely no takers. I tuned around the 20m band, but the only station I could hear was Brian ZL2ASH, who was testing on 14.156. I called Brian, but unfortunately he could not hear me.

So I again lowered the squid pole, and reconnected the crocodile clips for 40m and again went band searching on 40m. I found young Reuben VK7FREU calling CQ from SOTA peak, Mount Wellington, VK7/ SC-001.

Prior to leaving the park I also spoke with Rob VK2QR/3 who was portable on SOTA peak, Sam Hill VK3/ VG-049. As normal, Rob had a good strong signal. And then I worked Amanda VK3FQSO who was operating portable in the Terrick Terrick National Park, VKFF-630.

I was also called by Glenn VK3YY and Kevin VK3KAB who were on top of Mount Terrible, VK3/ VE-067. You can read a bit about Glenn and Kevin’s activation on Glenn’s WordPress site at…..